I'm sort of hiding on the left side of the armoire. I was back there putting something on the mantle when Brad said he was trying to take pictures.
I was trying to get Claire to cooperate. I did a great job, obviously.
While I may not have pictures, I can tell you a little about how things are going. I'm in week 27, currently. Almost finished with 2nd trimester, which is simultaneously mind blowing (at how much closer we are to having another baby) and not surprising (because I feel like I've been pregnant for a really long time). I found out about this baby at about 5 weeks (maybe 4), so we've known for a while, making time seem like it's crawling sometimes. I'll have my glucose test in about two weeks, which, to my mind, signals that we really are getting down to the end.
I also have an anesthesia consult coming up, to address some of the issues that caused so much trouble when Claire was born. For those that weren't reading my blog at the time, I had all manner of post-partum issues- almost all due to anesthesia. I have developed a pretty deep anxiety about it, even though that was almost three years ago. My doctors in Boston weren't able to come up with a conclusive reason as to why I had so much trouble, but the best guess is that the shape of my spine when pregnant is problematic. I asked for an epidural when in labor, and it took three attempts by two different doctors (three separate needle punctures) for it to take (and then it only worked for 30 minutes). Later, when my OB decided I needed a c-section, it took a third doctor three attempts (three additional spinal punctures) to insert my spinal block (which, again, did not work, leading to general anesthesia for the surgery). Post delivery, I developed a spinal headache from a wet tap I got during the earlier epidural attempts. To alleviate the headache, yet a fourth doctor attempted a blood patch (which is another spinal procedure). It took three punctures that time, as well, and I experienced relief for only two hours.
All of the punctures and procedures really shook my nerves, and I developed a real fear of any future spinal intervention damaging my spine somehow. Maybe that's far-fetched, but for me, it's a concern. I'm planning on a scheduled c-section with this baby, which means I'll have to have anesthesia of some kind or another, so meeting with an anesthesiologist to discuss my concerns and options is helpful for me as I adjust.
The baby is growing right on track and moves like a gymnast. I spend a lot of the nighttime hours awake, thanks to the roundhouse kicks that she's perfecting. Claire really enjoys talking to her and trying to get her to kick her (Claire's) hand. I'm not sure the baby actually has, but Claire's convinced that she gets kicked every time. The baby is really shy about moving for Brad, so he's only felt her move a few times, which is bizarre to me, seeing as how she moves ALL THE TIME for me. While it's frustrating not to be able to sleep, it's reassuring that she moves so much. At my last appointment, the midwife I saw checked the heart rate and commented that she's a "happy baby." I hope that's true.
During my pregnancy with Claire, my doctor was very attuned to my weight gain, and I ended up using MyFitnessPal like it was my job to monitor how many calories I was eating, hoping to keep my weight within the doctor's parameters. It was so stressful (and I found out later that I was retaining MASSIVE amounts of fluid, which added to the weight), and it made me pretty miserable. This time, the midwives have been encouraging me not to fixate on weight gain and just focus more on the quality of what I'm eating, and surprisingly, I'm gaining weight at a much slower rate. Yay!
We still don't have a name yet. This is very surprising to me, actually. We can't seem to land on just the right name yet. We talk about it periodically, but it isn't crunch time yet, so I guess we're taking it slow. Any name suggestions out there? We have a few that we've kind of narrowed it down to, but we're up for help, if you have any!
The baby isn't getting her own nursery, so I don't have a lot of decorating to do. For the first several months (while she's nursing at night, at the very least), she'll sleep in our room. Eventually, we're planning for the girls to room together, so instead of decorating a nursery, we'll be rearranging Claire's room to accommodate Baby Sister. We're working on some decor just for her (that will hopefully go along with Claire's themes). We didn't have a real nursery in Boston, so I never went all nursery-crazy and, rather, pulled together some fun things that were meaningful to me to surround Claire with. The goal is to do the same for New Baby. Maybe I'll take pictures of Claire's room to show you what I mean.
As far as how I'm feeling goes, I'm holding steady. The migraines have gotten quite a bit better, although I still get regular headaches and the occasional migraine (I missed church this week, thanks to one). The nausea is better. I'm still on regular medication, but it's able to keep things at bay much better in the 2nd trimester than in the first. I do have to stay on top of the medicine or it gets bad. I'm still extremely tired in the afternoons and haven't really gotten the fabled 2nd trimester energy boost (BUMMED about that. It didn't happen with Claire, either.). I've also started up some really uncomfortable sciatic-type pain. All normal things, so I'm not too concerned.
We're not having any showers or anything this time around (not living near family, having just recenty committed to a church, and having a rather scattered group of local friends), and thankfully, we don't need too much. Since we're having another girl, we're pretty good on clothing, which is nice. We've also had several family members give us some sweet gifts of clothes, hair accessories, and baby necessities. Thanks, family! We've registered for a few things, but mostly so that we can buy them with a registry completion discount after the baby comes. We're totally planning to cloth diaper again, but we know that the baby may not fit in them for a few months (Claire didn't fit until 4 months). Thus, we added diapers to our registries so that we can get a discount while we need them. Same goes with some nursing supplies that I used regularly last time. Grad school penny pinching, y'all!
I think that's all of the information of interest. Any other 2nd trimester questions I can address? I'm doing a lot of reading up on preparing for a scheduled c-section, which I'm finding to be helpful, and I've started pseudo-nesting, I guess. Or maybe I just think the house needs a good cleaning. Either way, Claire and I have been working around the house. She's a great helper.
Thanks to everyone who prays for me and checks in on how I'm doing. It means so much to me. Looking forward to having new baby pictures to post for you!
No comments:
Post a Comment